12/6/58-Tokyo, Japan: Crown Prince Akihito (r) and his bride-to-be Michiko Shoda, play tennis at the Tokyo Lawn Tennis Club. This is the first photo taken of the couple together playing tennis since the announcement of their engagement 11/27.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Prince Akihito and his bride-to-be Michiko Shoda, play tennis together
12/6/58-Tokyo, Japan: Crown Prince Akihito (r) and his bride-to-be Michiko Shoda, play tennis at the Tokyo Lawn Tennis Club. This is the first photo taken of the couple together playing tennis since the announcement of their engagement 11/27.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Training for Imperial Homemaking - Real Michiko Shoda
Top left - Michiko Shoda and her family in April 1957
Top right - Crown Princess Michiko arrives at the DC airport in September 1960
Bottom (L) - Michiko Shoda with her school friend in January 1958
"Michiko has been taking a wide variety of enrichment classes and has completed most of them at a professional level. There is nothing amateurish about her achievement.
One of her favorite classes is a cooking class and her western-style cooking classes are taught by an English speaking instructor. However having an excellent command of English, she can communicate very well in those classes. "Michiko, what ingredients are missing here and how much amount of them can be added? " When her teacher asked, Michiko could answer promptly, "1/2 spoonful of sugar and a bit of Mirin."
She loves to cook exquisite dishes and her prince has similar tastes. There may be a big change in imperial dining table after long years of leaving everything to cooking staff in the Imperial Household.
She started taking piano lessons shortly after she entered the Futaba elementary school. Although the WWII interrupted her study, she resumed her lessons with a highly professional teacher while she was in the Seishin school. Now she can play completely any difficult pieces. She loves Romantic music by Chopin and Schubert and recently often practices music by Debussy and Ravel.
About visual arts, She draws nicely harmonized pictures influenced by her father who is a member of the renowned Churchill Club.
Her fashion's main theme is "less showy". She doesn't own too many dresses, but all of them are designed by prestigious designers. She loves modest colors such as navy, black and dark brown. She has never chosen flashy style. However she reads many fashion magazines like Vogue and does not totally rely on designers' taste. She owns less than 10 suites and which is relatively modest for a young woman from a wealthy family. Recently she ordered a navy colored silk suits.
At home, she wears a reversible satin house dress. Her night gown is made of cream colored Crepe De Chin tailored for her recent European tour. The gown is decorated with race around the neck and still worn by her nightly.
She only makes simple blouse or skirt by herself. She prefers to wear modest accessories and pearl is her favorite jewel. She seldom wears rings.
Her sizes are, 32 bust, 23.5 waist, 36.5 hip, 15 inches shoulder-width,
23 right arm length, and 22 left arm length. Being a tennis enthusiast, her right arm is a bit longer than left arm."
Crown Prince Akihito And Bride-To-Be
12/6/58-Tokyo, Japan: Crown Prince Akihito (r) and his bride-to-be Michiko Shoda, proceed to a tennis court at the Tokyo Lawn Tennis Club to play a few sets of tennis. This is the first photo taken of the couple together since the announcement of their engagement 11/27. A battery of 70 news cameramen greeted them as they left the clubhouse. They were shy but grinned and laughed as they played for over half an hour.
Michiko Shoda and Her Family
Prince Akihito's Fiancee and Family. Tokyo, Japan: Miss Michiko Shoda (second from left, front row), who was chosen to be the bride of Crown Prince Akihito of Japan, relaxes with members of her family at her home here November 27, after the official announcement of her engagement. In the picture are (left to right), front row, Mrs. Fumi Shoda, her mother; Michiko; Telichiro, her grandfather; Emiko, her younger ssiter; and Hidesaburo Shoda, her father, Standing in back are (left).Osamu, a younger brother; and Iwao, an elder brother. The engagement of the Crown Prince to a commoner breaks more tha 2,000 years of Japaense tradition. November 27, 1958.
You Have Overwhelmed Me - Life Magazine December 15, 1958
Michiko Shows off her Athletic Side
Family Portrait - with her parents and brother
Hidesaburo Shōda (1904–1999) was president and later honorary chairman of Nisshin Flour Milling Company.
Playing with her friend in the backyard
The Autumn Athletic Festival at the Seishin (Sacred Heart) High School
Selected as the Student Commencement Speaker at the University of the Sacred Heart
Playing Cards on New Year's Day
Michiko Shoda as a Child
(L) Michiko in a studio portrait taken at her "Shichi-Go-San" ceremony in Nov. 1940. Shichi-Go-San (七五三, lit. "Seven-Five-Three") is a traditional rite of passage and festival day in Japan for three and seven year-old girls and three and five year-old boys, held annually on November 15.
Introduction
Empress Michiko of Japan (皇后美智子 Kōgō Michiko, formerly Michiko Shōda (正田 美智子 Shōda Michiko); born 20 October 1934) is the wife and consort of Emperor Akihito, the current monarch of Japan. She was the first commoner to marry into the Japanese Imperial Family. As crown princess and later as empress consort, she has become the most visible and widely-travelled imperial consort in Japanese history. Her full title is Her Imperial Majesty The Empress of Japan.
Empress Michiko was born in Tokyo, the eldest daughter of Hidesaburo Shōda (1904–1999), president and later honorary chairman of Nisshin Flour Milling Company, and his wife, Fumiko Soejima (1910–1988). She attended Futaba Elementary School in Tokyo, but was obliged to leave during the fourth grade because of the American bombing during World War II. She returned to school after the war ended and attended the Seishin (Sacred Heart) High School in Tokyo. She earned a bachelor of arts in English literature from the Faculty of Literature at the University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo in 1957.
In August 1957, she met then-Crown Prince Akihito on a tennis court at Karuizawa. The Imperial Household Council (a body composed of the Prime Minister of Japan, the presiding officers of the two houses of the Diet of Japan, or Parliament, the Chief Justice of Japan, and two members of the Imperial Family) formally approved the engagement of the Crown Prince to Michiko Shōda on 27 November 1958. Soon after, a nation-wide sensation and mass media fever (the Michie boom) erupted.
Although the future Crown Princess was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, she was a commoner. During the 1950s, the media and most persons familiar with the Japanese monarchy had assumed the powerful Imperial Household Agency (Kunaicho) would select a bride for Crown Prince Akihito from among the daughters of the former court nobility (Kazoku) or from one of the former branches of the Imperial Family.
Some traditionalists opposed the engagement, and it was widely rumored that Empress Kōjun also was against her son's engagement that she had bullied her effervescent new daughter-in-law into a rumored nervous breakdown in the early 1960s. The young couple, nonetheless, proved widely popular among the Japanese public.
The couple married on 10 April 1959.
Three children were born to the couple:
1. HIH Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan, b. 23 February 1960
2. HIH Prince Akishino (Fumihito), b. 30 November 1965
3. The former HIH Princess Nori (Sayako), b. 18 April 1969
Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko again broke precedent by preferring to raise their children instead of entrusting them to the care of Court chamberlains; the Crown Princess even breastfed. Her efforts to break free of suffocating court etiquette regarding childrearing may have been even more serious than is popularly known.
Upon the death of Emperor Hirohito on 7 January 1989, her husband became Japan's 125th Emperor and she became Empress Consort. The new Emperor and Empress were enthroned (Sokui Rei Seiden no Gi) at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on 12 November 1990.
Empress Michiko - From Wikipedia
Empress Michiko was born in Tokyo, the eldest daughter of Hidesaburo Shōda (1904–1999), president and later honorary chairman of Nisshin Flour Milling Company, and his wife, Fumiko Soejima (1910–1988). She attended Futaba Elementary School in Tokyo, but was obliged to leave during the fourth grade because of the American bombing during World War II. She returned to school after the war ended and attended the Seishin (Sacred Heart) High School in Tokyo. She earned a bachelor of arts in English literature from the Faculty of Literature at the University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo in 1957.
In August 1957, she met then-Crown Prince Akihito on a tennis court at Karuizawa. The Imperial Household Council (a body composed of the Prime Minister of Japan, the presiding officers of the two houses of the Diet of Japan, or Parliament, the Chief Justice of Japan, and two members of the Imperial Family) formally approved the engagement of the Crown Prince to Michiko Shōda on 27 November 1958. Soon after, a nation-wide sensation and mass media fever (the Michie boom) erupted.
Although the future Crown Princess was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, she was a commoner. During the 1950s, the media and most persons familiar with the Japanese monarchy had assumed the powerful Imperial Household Agency (Kunaicho) would select a bride for Crown Prince Akihito from among the daughters of the former court nobility (Kazoku) or from one of the former branches of the Imperial Family.
Some traditionalists opposed the engagement, and it was widely rumored that Empress Kōjun also was against her son's engagement that she had bullied her effervescent new daughter-in-law into a rumored nervous breakdown in the early 1960s. The young couple, nonetheless, proved widely popular among the Japanese public.
The couple married on 10 April 1959.
Three children were born to the couple:
1. HIH Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan, b. 23 February 1960
2. HIH Prince Akishino (Fumihito), b. 30 November 1965
3. The former HIH Princess Nori (Sayako), b. 18 April 1969
Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko again broke precedent by preferring to raise their children instead of entrusting them to the care of Court chamberlains; the Crown Princess even breastfed. Her efforts to break free of suffocating court etiquette regarding childrearing may have been even more serious than is popularly known.
Upon the death of Emperor Hirohito on 7 January 1989, her husband became Japan's 125th Emperor and she became Empress Consort. The new Emperor and Empress were enthroned (Sokui Rei Seiden no Gi) at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on 12 November 1990.
Empress Michiko - From Wikipedia
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